He’s not the only executive at a cloud storage company who might say so. Dropbox, for instance, has acquired email, photo, and music apps that could eventually help differentiate it as a storage option. Box has features like task management and activity reports that help it function as an enterprise collaboration tool in addition to a storage bin.

YouSendIt, however, is taking its attempts to differentiate itself a step further with a new name: Hightail.

The company, which says it has about 43 million users, has redesigned its website, mobile apps, and logo to reflect the name change. Its products are now orange, which contrasts with the industry’s typical gray and blue themes. Hightail CMO Mike Trigg says one of his requirements was that the new name couldn't, like most Hightail competitors, "have 'cloud,' 'box,' 'sync,' or 'share' in it."

When YouSendIt launched in 2004, it was a simple webpage interface for transferring files that were too big for email to process. Its name was literal. As the product evolved into a cloud storage platform, however, the branding became less descriptive of the service. Now the company targets creative professionals with tools for signing documents online, keeping control over important files, and sharing assets with multiple clients—so the once literal name makes even less sense.

Hightail Creative Director Aaron Martin's original sketch of the new logo.

The name "Hightail" isn't as restrictive.

"Imagine if Google would have called itself 'search the web,’" Scheinker says, "how different things would be today."

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Doesn't "hightail" mean "to run away out of fear"? Bad branding. And they still overcharge. I've been using backupthat for a while now and I have backed up 500GB of files for free. I could back up more if I had it. They essentially give you a way to have unlimited storage for free.